CardAgro - a Marketplace for Agro

Introduction

With over 5 Millions agriculture farms (from all size ranges), Brazil is today one of the world´s top food producers, according to a IBGE poll made in 2019. At the same time around 20 million people live in starving conditions, with a big contribution from the 35% of the total production being considered waste.

These figures indicates that:

a. massive blockchain adoption together with tracking and measurement mechanisms (enabled by IoT for instance) would help to properly track and take countermeasures against the waste;

a1. Combined with Advanced Analytics techniques for prediction and avoiding conditions which results in the loss, this would be a turning point for all the food supply value chain;

b. The hungry must be combated through a series of policies which in turn would be very beneficial to smart contracts. Adoption of a smart contracts platform like Cardano would allow proper fee collecting and distribution for the poorest through coordination with local NGOs or governments.

For CardAgro the key is to understand the process: these 5 Million producers have their procurement process through direct purchase process (online and offline), after getting financing from the government funded banking at interest rates as low as 1%/ year.

The supply chain for agroindustrial is based on direct sales/ purchases. Therefore a starting point, the CardAgro platform would act as a marketplace for the producers to purchase (in direct or even reverse bidding) with a properly designed onboarding system (i.e. the company shall have people to act as partner and gain trust from the local producers to rely on technology).

The key for creating value is that as part of the smart contract, a fee would be collected and automatically audited and distributed to the NGOs subscribed. This would generate a stream of funds for hungry eradication, setting up a scene based on DAO concept.

The marketplace would be free to use at first, for any side. However, at any transaction closed, this fee would be applicable.

The main advantage for all the points would be the security implied by utilization of a blockchain-based platform. The system would be able to track all the transactions made, backtracking in time in order to review all the orders made by a specific customer or supplier.

For ease of adoption the system would be operable by ADA and by FIAT coins. At a later stage any cryptocoin able to be interoperable with Cardano would be accepted.

At later development stages it could also incorporate connection to the financing mechanisms and tracking of food waste, developing a holistic view for all the transactions in the value chain.

2. Project Development Plan

The project shall have at least three phases:

a. Proof of Concept

b. Vertical Scale

c. Horizontal Scale

2.1 Proof of Concept

The initial goal is to have a marketplace for the supply of goods in use by 5-10 small scale farms located in the Brazilian southeast region. We would have a reverse bid type of farm, and allow the possible suppliers to bid for these farmers.

All the transactions would generate a fee in a ledger dedicated to provide funds for NGOs dedicated to hungry eradication.

The intention here is to test the platform and to collect all possible feedback for scaling it up for a larger vertical scale. Therefore, the output of this phase is the development plan for a larger number of suppliers.

As steps and sprints planned:

January/ 2022 - Interview with farmers and suppliers for designing the value chain and the platform solution

February/ 2022 - Identify on Cardano community an existing marketplace platform which could be adapted to this end

February - July / 2022 - Software adaptation for the Agroindustry utilization

Abril - July/ 2022 - Engaging with a focal farmer and his possible suppliers

July/ 2022 - Identifying the communication channels proper for the marketing next steps

August/ 2022 - Collecting all the feedbacks

September/2022 - Developing the initial marketing campaign

2.2 Vertical Scale

After the proof of concept is developed and all the lessons learnt are ok, we would add two different layers for this reverse-bidding marketplace: one for the tier 1 suppliers of small farms, and another for the small clients.

2.3 Horizontal Scale

After the marketplace is well developed, we would add a marketing/ sales team applying growth marketing strategies for continuous testing and feedbacking the most successful ones.

3 People and Resource Planning

3.1 For Proof of Concept

• Product Manager - Responsible for basic description and design of all functions presented at CardAgro Platform;
• Backend/ Haskell: Team responsible for developing all the backend, including the smart contracts facilities.
• Front End Developer: Responsible for designing and implementing the best user interfaces.
• Leader: Responsible for developing all the Proof of Concept marketing channels, and establishing broadcast communication with the suppliers, producers and the NGOs.
• Engagement Leader: Responsible for developing the communications with the Rural Producer assuring to have it proper training and utilizing the platform.
• Supply Leader: Responsible for developing the communication with the Suppliers assuring them to proper training and utilization of the platform.

3.1.1 Cost Breakdown:

• 1 off Product Manager x 6 month x 2,5 kUSD/month = 15 kUSD
• 2 off Backend Developer x 6 month x 2,5 kUSD/month = 30 kUSD
• 1 off FrontEnd Developer x 6 month x 2,0 kUSD/month = 12 kUSD
• 1 off Engagement Leader x 4 month x 1,5 kUSD/month = 6 kUSD
• 1 off Supply Leader x 4 month x 1,5 kUSD/month = 6 kUSD

TOTAL Cost: 69 kUSD

3.2 For Scaling

In addition to the team composed for the Proof of Concept, the following roles would be added:

• Front End Developer: Two more people responsible for designing and implementing the best user interfaces.

• Customer Success: Responsible for the customer following up on the day-to-day basis.

These positions won´t be included in this phase of the project. It is merely plan for future view, and will be revised accordingly by the end of the Proof of Concept phase.

4. Current CardAgro Team

Heber Luiz Nogueira - 3+ Years as Data Scientist with background on Control and Automation Engineering. Experience on developing descriptive and prescriptive models for equipment failure prediction.

Agriculture acquainted with development of automation concepts for small farms in southeast Brazil.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heber-nogueira/

Luiz Augusto Leal Porto - Mechanical Engineer with solid formation on systems identification.

Agriculture acquainted by family with his father being responsible for public financing structure for agro-producers on the State of São Paulo.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/portoluiz/

Matheus Parreiras Andrade - Data Engineer with background on Electrical Engineering. Experience on desigining and implementing IoT pipelines of data.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matheus-andrade-96b80a118/

Thiago Mikail de Oliveira - Digital Leader with background on Control & Automation Engineering. Company-founder of a tourism business related (responsible for all the digital marketing activities).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thiagomikail/

Victor Corcino - Blockchain and Cardano Expert. Chemical Engineer with solid formation on systems identification.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorcorcino/

Wilber Delbrison Amaral - 20+ years seasoned Data Expert Professional with solid experience on Application Architecture and Development. Background on Computer Engineering. Blockchain and Cardano citizen.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/delbrison/